Nickel Intermediate Products Affected by Nickel Prices and Supply-Demand Dynamics, Prices Rose This Week
From this week's MHP market performance, supply side, market available spot cargo remained tight, sellers' bargaining power in transactions significantly strengthened, some traders raised offers, forming price support. Meanwhile, influenced by the transmission effect of sustained rising cobalt sulphate prices, the cobalt payable indicator in MHP also increased, further raising MHP's cost base and pricing expectations. Demand side, the overall intermediate product market is in a tight supply-demand balance, coupled with downstream industries entering the peak demand season, enterprises released raw material procurement demand. Against this backdrop, downstream enterprises gradually improved their acceptance of high-priced MHP, and demand-side support for the market significantly strengthened. Considering factors from both supply and demand sides, this week's MHP prices rose in absolute terms driven by the increase in the coefficient.
High-grade nickel matte market, supply side, domestic spot high-grade nickel matte availability has basically been exhausted, market tradable resources are scarce, some traders have suspended offers due to no cargo to sell. Demand side, some downstream enterprises still have clear external purchase needs for raw materials, but limited by the exhaustion of spot high-grade nickel matte availability, it is difficult to reach procurement transactions, so they may turn to other types of raw materials as substitutes to ensure production continuity.
As a key raw material for nickel intermediate product production, sulphur prices showed a sustained rising trend recently. Supply side, the tight availability of overseas sulphur cargo continued, providing solid support for sulphur prices. Demand side, influenced by just-in-time procurement in the Indonesian market, overall market acceptance of sulphur prices continued to rise, further driving prices up. Looking ahead, currently, affected by conflicts in some regions, the flow of some overseas sulphur cargo is restricted; meanwhile, global sulphur demand continues to grow. Driven by both supply constraints and demand growth, sulphur prices are expected to have further upside room.
Nickel prices, this week, influenced by macro factors such as positive signals from US economic data and significantly strengthened market expectations for interest rate cuts, LME nickel prices overall rose WoW. Combined with the reasons for the coefficient increase, MHP and high-grade nickel matte prices overall showed a synchronous rising trend this week.
